Research Associate

Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge.

Email: mjw208@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)1223 465201

I studied for my undergraduate degree in Applied Psychology and master’s degree in Cognitive & Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Durham and moved to Cambridge in October 2012. Initially I was employed as a research assistant on a project investigating the role of mitochondrial function in people with Down’s syndrome and then with the CLAHRC as a research assistant. I started my PhD in April 2014 which studied Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down’s syndrome, specifically looking at whether changes in the retina are indicative of changes due to Alzheimer’s disease. This project collaborated with researchers from University College London and we also completed a study investigating retinal cell death in people with Down’s syndrome.

I completed my PhD in February 2018 and in March 2018 I started a post-doc research position funded by ARUK. In collaboration with a national study, Deep and Frequent Phenotyping in Alzheimer’s Disease and with the Brain Repair Centre at Addenbrooke’s several ophthalmological imaging techniques will be used to further understand the role of the retina in Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down’s syndrome.